Inmates Build Toys for Local Kids

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Placer County Jail inmate Scott Flores works on wooden toys for a new program in the jail.

PLACER COUNTY-

Scott Flores has another year to go in the Placer County Jail for a drug related theft.

“When we come in here, we have nothing but a sense of what we have taken from our community,” Flores said. “Now we get to kinda reverse that.”

Flores is taking part in a new pilot program at the jail. Using donations and surplus supplies from around Placer County, he and other inmates create a variety of wooden toys, including ducks, boats and police cars.

“Unfortunately this isn’t my first rodeo, but this is perhaps one of the first times that I’ve come away with a positive feeling of having in some small way begun to repay that debt to society,” Flores said.

The program aims to create over 300 toys, which will be donated to Toys for Tots and several offices around Placer County that deal with Children, including CPS, the Multi-Disciplinary Interview Center and the Children’s Receiving Home.

“It touched home for them,” said Officer Felix Sanchez, who started the new program. “Most of them have children, and they want to be home for Christmas, so this is their way of saying ‘I want to help a child.'”

Flores has three daughters at home, who will be spending Christmas without him. He’s grateful for an opportunity to spend time giving back to children this time of year, even if they’re not his own.

“When you give somebody something positive to do and some sense of contributing to their community, I think it is better for everyone involved,” he said.